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Good practice in giving capacity building advice

Organisations in the US seek assistance from many sources including large for-profit consulting firms, for-profit and nonprofit consulting boutiques, solo practitioners, volunteer brokers, management support organisations, foundations, associations and academic centres.

An intensive study of the most committed and successful providers concluded their approaches could be boiled down to nine principles:

  1. Every organisation is capable of building its own capacity – the most successful providers of capacity building support carry a deep respect for their client‘s ability to build their own capacity and genuinely recognise that an organisation is in charge of its own capacity building
  2. Trust between the organisation and the provider is essential – both parties must feel free to communicate openly, to ask for help beyond the usual, to risk disapproval, to listen and to learn
  3. Organisations must be ready for capacity building – exhibiting the following qualities:
    • The organisation is open to change and willing to question itself
    • The organisation can clearly describe its mission
    • Key members believe that capacity building will help to further the mission
    • The organisation is prepared to commit the necessary time and resources to capacity building.
  4. Ongoing questioning means better answers – the provider facilitates a climate in which questioning and feedback are encouraged
  5. Team and peer learning are effective capacity building tools – working in pairs and learning experiences for people who work in teams are good for capacity building
  6. Capacity building should accommodate different learning styles – some people learn by doing, some by experimenting, some need to talk, some need to think, some are more visual and some more verbal – all need to be taken into account
  7. Every organisation has its own history and culture – the better a provider‘s understanding of an organisation‘s situation, the more powerful the capacity building
  8. All people and all parts of an organisation are interrelated – no matter how specific the issue, it connects with the rest of the organisation and must be dealt with in that way. Change has a far better chance of success if it involves people from many levels, staff, constituents and board members
  9. Capacity building takes time – intensive long-term training and apprenticeships prepare people to build organisations and can take place in stages.

Based on : Allison Fine, Nancy Kopf and Colette Thayer, Echoes from the Field, Washington, Innovation Network, 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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